


Charlie's Utter Depravity: Snake-Bomb Side-step

by DeaconBrews



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Friendships, Enemies to Friends, Exactly The Opposite Of What It Says On The Tin, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hugs, No Smut, Non-violence, Not Actually Depraved At All, Reform, Romantic Fluff, Sleeping Together, Sleepy Cuddles, romantic evening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:01:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28856250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeaconBrews/pseuds/DeaconBrews
Summary: Still reeling from the humiliation of being hugged in public when they were in the middle of a perfectly respectable turf war, Cherri and Pentious find themselves stuck in each other's company for the evening.
Relationships: Cherri Bomb/Sir Pentious (Hazbin Hotel)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	Charlie's Utter Depravity: Snake-Bomb Side-step

Although the airship, for all intents and purposes, had been destroyed, its many pieces were, in and of themselves, intact. Sir Pentious had designed the craft with carefully placed crumple zones and deliberate planes of weakness, such that its ‘destruction’ was less a case of a single, whole machine being rendered twisted and ruined, and more akin to a tower of blocks tumbling; although the whole was destroyed, each individual component more or less remained viable. Neither he nor Cherri Bomb could have been more grateful for this fact as they stumbled into the remains of the living quarters under a heavy pall of shame.

The two demons separated as soon as they heard the door seal behind them, retreating to opposite corners of the room. It hardly mattered to anyone but them, their humiliation had been as public as possible. The Princess had hugged them! Both of them! AT THE SAME TIME! They’d been in the midst of a perfectly respectable turf war, one so savage and destructive that it had made the news no less, and she’d just waltzed right into their line of fire, beaming like the sun, and HUGGED them! 

Cherri shuddered and tugged futilely at her suspender. She felt so dirty. She could almost still feel Charlie’s arms around her, the touch of her luxurious mane of hair as the smaller demoness had nestled her head up below her chin, or worse yet, the crisp sensation of her rival’s coat against her cheek. And her poor wingman Angel Dust, he’d been hauled off in a double hand-hold to who knows what terrible fate.

Pentious was in no better shape. It had literally been over a century since the last time the proudly evil scientist-turned-warlord had allowed anyone to touch him with such disgustingly chaste and good-hearted affection. The feeling of The Princess holding him close, the way she’d drawn him just as close to Cherri in spite of the utter hatred they had for each other…

He shuddered.

What horror she’d wrought upon them.

“Hey”

Cherri’s voice roused him from the funk of his own thoughts. She cast a side-long glare at him as she continued.

“Tell me you’ve got a shower in here, Old Man.”

He was incensed by the implication she was making.

“Of courssse I have a shower! I have a fully furnished bathing room. This is a noble’s residence, not one of the cheap baudy houses you’re doubtlessly familiar with!”

“Well then point me at it you scaly creep! I need a wash and I need it pronto! In case you weren’t paying attention we both just got yanked into a full-blown GROUP HUG!”

“I’M WELL AWARE YOU DOLT! YOU’LL FIND THE SHOWER DOWN THAT HALL ON THE LEFT!”

Pentious sliced through the air with a claw as he directed the unwelcome guest toward the bathroom. 

“THANKS THAT’S ALL I NEEDED TO KNOW.”

Cherri cursed under her breath as she stalked down the hall.

“DON’T USE ALL THE HOT WATER!”

“FUCK YOU! I WASN’T GONNA!”

\--- 

Sir Pentious poked idly at his food, looked up at Cherri sitting across the table, then firmly directed his eyes back down to his dish. It was a bad idea, letting her stay. While he could sympathize with not wanting to go out in public after such a humiliation, this was starting to get…strange. Between their solitude, their shared meal, and the candles he’d been forced to light now that the onboard power cells were all but spent, it felt dangerously close to a romantic evening.

“What is this anyway?”

He again raised his gaze to his dining companion, absently running her spoon through her own bowl.

“Turkish Broth.”

“...What makes it Turkish?”

Pentious looked back down at the meat and vegetables swimming before him.

“...I’m not sure myself actually. In my day the Ottomans were the most exotic thing most of us could imagine and celery was the most expensive vegetable on the market. I suppose that to serve an abundance of celery to your guests and claim it was a Turkish dish was a ‘flex’ as someone from your time would say. A gaudy show of wealth.”

Cherri took a moment to dwell on that information.

“Celery was rich people food back then?

“We had elaborate pressed glass vases made especially for it.”

“We’d eat it almost every day when I was a kid. With peanut butter. By the time I was grown I was sick of it.”

“You’d have looked like the richest people in the world to us.”

The two demons shared a chuckle, then realized what they were doing. They bit down on their tongues and tried to direct their thoughts toward evil. This was wrong. This wasn’t just ‘dangerously close’ to a romantic evening anymore. It WAS a romantic evening. The Princess had done something to them, something beyond forcing them into a hug. She’d somehow blunted the edge of their hate.

Both let the conversation die and began to gulp their food down as quickly as they could. The sooner they’d sated themselves the sooner they could get away from the table and stop acting so damn wholesome. Then they could...

Well...

What could they do? It was late. They’d been fighting all day. They were both tired. Neither wanted to be seen in public at the moment. Nothing to do but retire for the night once the candles started burning low. Pentious had to choke back a groan as he realized that on top of everything else, he was going to have to loan Cherri one of his nightgowns.

\--- 

“No! I’m not sleeping on the damn couch!”

“It’s a chaise lounge and it’s the best you’re going to get!”

“Well I’m not sleeping on the chaise lounge then!”

“Then you’re welcome to ssssleep on the floor!”

“You seriously only have one bed in here!?”

“Well forgive me, but I don’t typically entertain boorish, bomb-hurling streetwalkers in my private chambers! I haven’t furnished them up to such lofty standards!”

“Fine! Screw you anyway!”

Cherri would have stormed off to her inadequate sleeping place with as much visible rage as possible, but the gown Pentious had lent her to sleep in was a bit too long for her and she had to delicately pick up the hem to keep from tripping over.

“And sweet dreams to you as well madam!”

Pentious whipped around and slithered off to his own sleeping chamber, leaving Cherri in the study. The two demons settled into their respective beds, feeling much better than they had a few hours before. Things had gotten weird between politely taking turns with the shower, sharing a candlelit dinner, and engaging in light conversation, but they’d proved they could still bicker, shout, and viciously insult each other with aplomb. That bout of cuddling earlier hadn’t meant anything. Neither had that romantic evening. Yes, they were still quite evil, quite hateful. Evil and hateful as could be.

\--- 

Cherri couldn’t sleep, but she wasn’t sure why. She exhaled and realized that she could see her breath. As soon as she shifted away from where she’d been lying she was struck with the chill of cool upholstery. It was cold in here. She HATED being cold. She forced herself to stand up, despite the rush of cool air the act exposed her to, and started toward Pent’s room, her teeth chattering the whole way.

Of course the old snake was still sound asleep. Blissfully unaware of the fact that she was freezing her tits off. She hissed out in a whisper-yell.

“HEY. WAKE UP ASSHOLE.”

The snake demon started and growled in irritation.

“Agggh, what is it?”

She briefly wondered why she was bothering to whisper. She had no reason not to want to foul his sleep as much as possible, but she somehow felt committed to it now.

“It’s fuckin’ FREEZING out there, that’s what.”

“Of courssse it is, you BLEW UP the cogitator for the environmental control sssystems. The only reason the heater in my bed still works is because I had the foresight to-”

“You got a heater in this thing?”

She jabbed a hand down into the mattress. It was downright toasty.

“Yes, as I was saying, I’m cold blooded and therefore realized that an independently-powered back-up dev-”

“Make a hole Old Man, I’m comin’ in.” 

“I beg your pardon?”

“I’m NOT sleeping in the fucking ice box. I’ve spent my whole life and death AVOIDING that kinda shit at any cost. I’m sleeping HERE. Deal with it!”

With that declaration the cyclops demon hoisted herself up and stepped over him, onto the unoccupied side of the bed. She threw herself down with enough force to jostle the whole mattress, and wrestled herself under the covers with an equal lack of consideration. Once she was safely tucked away under the blanket she slammed her head down onto a spare pillow and tugged another one to her chest before rolling over and facing her back to her bed mate.

“Don’t get any funny ideas you slithering bastard. You touch me one time and I’ll break bones you didn’t even know you had.”

“I understand that there is no love lost between us, but I find the suggestion you are making quite insulting. I would never-”

“Oh shut up and go to sleep you senile fruitcake.”

Cherri scrunched herself up tighter and shimmied closer to the edge of the bed.

“...Very well. Good evening to you.”

Pentious faced himself directly away from his unwelcome bed-mate and hissed under his breath.

“...you horrid little urchin...”

\--- 

Cherri awoke to find herself in the midst of a full-body involuntary shudder. She was cold again. It had to be close to midnight. As good as being in the eye of a blizzard in this pit of suffering. She’d somehow worked herself out from under the blanket over the course of the night, but that wasn’t the real problem, the bed itself was cool. That stupid blowhard’s heater had somehow crapped out on them.

She rolled and kicked in mindless search of heat as shivers continued to consume her. Eventually she found it. A warm spot. She forced herself to open her eye and focus, and realized that her leg had chanced upon a spot that Pentious had been resting on a moment before. That’s right, she remembered now, he was ‘cold blooded’. She hadn’t done all that well in school (other than the more exciting aspects of chemistry of course), but she did remember that being cold blooded didn’t literally mean you were cold, it meant you needed to soak up heat from elsewhere. So old Pent had basically been acting like a heat sink all night. He was still warm, and he had warmth to spare.

No.

NO!

What was she thinking?

Was she actually considering cuddling with her biggest territorial rival? The stuffy doofus she’d made a lifestyle out of hammering with every explosive under the sun?

...well, why not, really?

The bottom line was that she was cold. She’d already gotten a hug once today, it’s not like another was going to make things any worse. Plus, this would be a one-on-one session. If anyone asked, she could just deny it had even happened, it would be her word against his.

She tugged the blankets back over herself as she slid toward the snake demon. Once she was close enough, she rolled over and put her back to his. Heck, if she pretended that she was still asleep he might think her criminal act of grand theft bodyheat was a mere accident. If she happened to rouse him, she could just lay still and he’d have to assume it was all a coincidence.

She rolled over, slipped her arms around Pent’s serpentine form as gently as she could, and nestled in. She sighed in satisfaction.

WARMTH. 

FINALLY.

\--- 

Sir Pentious awoke with confusion. It wasn’t that his personal heater had now failed, though he was aware that his bed was no longer radiating the way it normally did. It was the fact that he could swear he felt someone hugging him. For a brief moment he thought it was a nightmare, an echo of what had befallen him earlier, but no, it was real. It was all too real.

Cherri Bomb was hugging him in her sleep.

Hugging him as tight as she could. More than just hugging, she was cuddling with him, just as they had done in the aftermath of Charlie’s assault.

Worse, he was enjoying it.

He immediately began to rationalize. With the heater nonfunctional, each of them was the only bed warmer the other would find. This didn’t really count as cuddling. It was a selfish act of self-preservation, something any sinner worthy of the title could respect.

He re-situated himself as delicately as he could. If he feigned still being asleep, he might be able to excuse his degeneracy entirely.

\--- 

Cherri managed, just barely, to keep herself from jumping as Pent stirred in her grasp. Gotta keep the facade up. No noise from him, just slow, lazy movement. Still asleep then. Good.

He started to lightly coil his scaly serpentine form around her, bundling her up head to toe in smooth, glossy warmth. Hardly unwelcome, quite the opposite actually, and she shifted as subtly as she could to make it easier for him to wrap her up. Now THAT was cozy. Yet, something didn’t quite sit right about it. It started to dawn on her: there was no way he could really be asleep. He was moving too carefully, too considerately. His hands and coils were conspicuously far away from anywhere but the most chaste places one demon could hold another. The jerk was totally hugging her on purpose! But she couldn’t call him out on it, that would mean revealing she’d been awake this whole time.

\--- 

Pentious quickly realized something was wrong. Cherri wasn’t moving like someone who was truly lost in slumber. She was making subtle movements to ensure it was as easy as possible for him to coil around her. There was no mistaking it, she was awake, and had been for some time. This was no mere autonomous activity of a somnolescent mind, the little wretch had been hugging him deliberately! Yet, if he were to pull away he would reveal that he knew, and thereby reveal that he too was awake, hugging her back of his own volition. No, he was committed to the farce now. He either had to follow through or openly admit that he liked hugs, and the latter was simply not an option.

\--- 

The two demons nestled together beneath the blanket in a snuggly stalemate, each of them awake, pretending to be asleep. Each convinced they had the other fooled. Each enjoying the cuddles far more than they would ever own up to, until they both dozed back off in each other’s arms.

There was no birdsong or the like to wake them when the morning came. Nothing so pleasant to be found in Hell. With the shades drawn, the only sign that night had ended was the faintest glow emanating from their edges, and the fact that it was no longer so frigid that one could see their own breath. Still, they remained cuddled up against one another. One hour, then two. Eventually it became clear that the jig was up.

They both spoke at the same time.

“I know you’re awake.”

They jumped in each other’s grasp, but didn’t part by even an inch, and looked up to meet their cuddle partner’s gaze. Despite the awkwardness of the silence that grew between them, they found they had little trouble staring into each other’s eyes.

“Well… I ssssupose we’ve both abandoned all pretense of being enemies at this point.”

“...yeah...”

“So...could you pat my head too?”

Pentious took a long, inquisitive look at the cyclops he had bundled up in his coils.

“Please?”

She was serious.

“...I don’t see why not.”

He reached up with one hand to run his fingers through her hair. The act required great delicacy; his demon form had been blessed with claws and he didn’t want to hurt her. For some reason.

She sighed as she felt him lightly raking over her scalp and nestled closer to his chest. If she tilted her head just right and really snuggled in, she could hear his heartbeat. That was nice. Comforting, somehow. After a few moments she decided she really ought to return the favor.

Pentious sucked in a sharp breath as he felt Cherri slide her hand up under his hood. He wasn’t used to being cuddled period, and he certainly wasn’t used to being touched there. But the tension melted away instantly as she started stroking down the back of his neck. That’s right. He liked being petted there. Or rather, he had, back when he was alive, all those decades ago. He looked down at her, and she looked back up at him. He opened his mouth to speak, but a sudden crash from outside interrupted them.

They parted and righted themselves in an instant. Another crash reached their ears, followed by a raking and tearing sound.

“Sssscavengers!”

“Sca-oh. Shit. Of-fucking-course.”

Cherri slapped her forehead in irritation. Of course there were scavengers out there. There’d been a turf war, a highly publicized one, yesterday, and now it was over. With the dust settled, every scrounger and scrapper for blocks around would be combing over the wreckage looking for anything they could fence or repurpose before the bigger demons who actually owned any of this crap came back into town. Nevermind if any of that wreckage still happened to be occupied.

“Looks like we’re in for a fight.”

Pentious set his jaw in grim determination.

“Indeed.”

“Last one out there is a pacifist!”

Cherri chirped out a challenge as she bolted past him out to where she’d left her gear. No time to change out of this ridiculous nightgown. They’d have made off with half the hull by the time she got out there. She had to get into it now. She was gonna...

She was going to...

What was she going to do?

Cherri rolled a bomb back and forth between her hands. Serious payload in this one. Enough to reduce anyone inside the blast radius to a cloud of red mist that would take weeks or even a month to reconstitute back into a demon. She didn’t like that thought; her usual bloodlust seemed to have left her. She fished through the rest of her arsenal: fragmentation grenades, concussion charges, fire bombs, wads of plastic explosive wrapped in barbed wire…none of those were exactly a kinder alternative. Ah, wait. Right here. A handful of what she’d nicknamed ‘disco lights’. Loud report and bright, colorful light, but little to no damage done. Hardly more than glorified fireworks that she’d use to distract an opponent or cover a retreat. They wouldn’t hurt anyone, but they’d certainly spook them and send them running. She was okay with that.

She heard a crackle and a low, electric hum that grew into a high-pitched whine. Looking up from her cache of explosives, she saw Pentious cranking up the dial on one of his rayguns. He pursed his lips as he looked it over, looking displeased. She heard the same sound again in reverse as he clicked the dial back down to just one notch above the ‘off’ position. Aiming to stun then, not to kill. Seemed he wasn’t in the mood for real mayhem either.

“You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

A rapid hammering sound from somewhere above them curtailed any further conversation. Whoever the looters were, they were certainly aggressive.

“Let’s get to it then.”

Cherri hurried to his side and let him lead her to the door. Striding out into the morning light, non-lethal weapons in hand, they entered the fray.

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt from /hhg/
> 
> Other stories in the CUDdle series (some links may not work)
> 
> part 1: https://pastebin.com/pc2ACTgJ  
> part 2: https://pastebin.com/fTAxFsdg  
> part 3: https://pastebin.com/MuGTE5EK  
> part 4: https://pastebin.com/RuKV8NqY  
> part 5: https://pastebin.com/TzdhGAYf  
> \--  
> C.U.D Angel nightmare: https://pastebin.com/jrRFWKkZ  
> C.U.D Pure love is disgusting: https://pastebin.com/ehcXFcWP  
> C.U.D Double the Love, Double the Fear: https://pastebin.com/iYdnYEMv  
> C.U.D Baxter needs a hug?: https://pastebin.com/M5cye5Pa  
> C.U.D Oh deer!: https://pastebin.com/ZyWkm9nb  
> C.U.D Turn The Other Cheek: https://pastebin.com/B9r0Bj5u  
> C.U.D The Cuddle Moth Cometh: https://pastebin.com/rx4n9qaC  
> C.U.D Flipside (NSFW): https://pastebin.com/GNnSWh95  
> C.U.D Mother Knows Best: https://pastebin.com/5xByrVwx  
> C.U.D Family Feuds, Family Friends!: https://pastebin.com/qJgd622T  
> C.U.D Charlie down time: https://pastebin.com/94ftaW60  
> C.U.D Rampage of the Cuddle Moth part 1: https://pastebin.com/78DhgN1J  
> C.U.D Rampage of the Cuddle Moth part 2: https://pastebin.com/hSpMQLSM  
> Charlie's Utter Depravity: Cracking the Ice: https://pastebin.com/KUQHZMNy  
> C.U.D. Imp City Blues Pt 1: https://pastebin.com/SvLXVCcE  
> C.U.D. Imp City Blues Pt 2: https://pastebin.com/z31WsKcm


End file.
